Ryan Packer
Ryan Packer has been writing for The Urbanist since 2015, and currently reports full-time as Contributing Editor. Their beats are transportation, land use, public space, traffic safety, and obscure community meetings. Packer has also reported for other regional outlets including Capitol Hill Seattle, BikePortland, Seattle Met, and PubliCola. They live in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle.
One of the most highly anticipated spot improvements for a King County Metro bus route has long been the idea of a Denny Way bus lane. Any way for Route 8, perpetually mired in peak commute traffic, to get past Denny Way's bumper-to-bumper traffic queuing to get on I-5...
In 2015, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) rechannelized a two-mile stretch of 35th Ave SW in West Seattle from SW Roxbury St near Seattle's city limits north to SW Willow St. The corridor, which has been referred to as "I-35" for many years, was designed to move as...
As King County Metro, in coordination with the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), begins its outreach on a planned RapidRide line to replace the current 7 on Rainier Avenue, SDOT also quietly announced that it is moving quickly with the second phase of safety improvements along Rainier Avenue, though...
Just a few years ago, the Seattle Mayor's Office, eying a confluence of construction events getting scheduled downtown and an uncertain timeline for buses to exit the downtown transit tunnel, pulled back on needed safety projects downtown for people on bikes. In classic Murray administration fashion, a taskforce was...
In Green Lake and Wallingford, design for a series of related paving and safety redesign projects is moving forward. The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) released updated information on how the department intends to rollout street improvements in 2019. Projects will entail making spot improvements at intersections, redesigning street layouts,...
Just before 10am on a recent Sunday morning, around 30 people gathered outside Cafe Javasti, a neighborhood coffee shop just north of NE 85th St in the Wedgwood neighborhood. Many came on bikes, kids in tow, bundled up for the chilly late winter morning. A few, like me, came...
It looks like the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is about to apply the brakes to Seattle Department of Transportation's car funnel that is the new Mercer Street. A few weeks ago the state transportation agency installed signals that will allow it the ability to meter the five...
Even before Summit Slope Park opened in late 2010, advocates were looking beyond the borders of the park's lot to the narrow stretch of John Street jutting off Olive Way and asking themselves if it could be better used as park space. At the corner of Summit Ave E...